Governor of Florida signs law that toughens his immigration policies

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis enacts a law that toughens immigration policies. Photo: EFE

The Governor of FloridaRon DeSantis, enacted this Friday, June 17, 2022, a law that further toughens the immigration policies from state to ban los public contracts with companies that provide assistance and transportation to immigrants, including unaccompanied minors.

It also broadens the definition ofsanctuary policy” to prevent Florida cities or counties from limiting or prohibiting local police from providing immigration information to federal authorities, who have exclusive jurisdiction in this matter.

Law enforcement agencies operating a detention facility must now sign an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICEin English), to participate in the 287(g) program, whereby local agents perform immigration enforcement functions.

The Republican also announced the formation of a “strike force” made up of state law enforcement officers such as the Highway Patrol and local agents to arrest human and drug traffickers.

Border crisis in the US.

Flanked by various agency officials public orderDeSantis said at a press conference this Friday that the arrival of the president, Joe Biden, at the White House in January 2021 meant “opening the border” with Mexico.

And he gave as an example the number of arrests of undocumented immigrants registered last May, more than 239,000, the largest record in recent years.

In an intervention with a clear national scope, the governor said that the policies in migratory matter of Biden are harmful to the country and lamented that in parts of the country undocumented immigrants are treated “almost better than US citizens in some aspects.”

But that will not be the case in Florida, where the new law, he said, “will protect Floridians from the Biden border crisis” and will not allow companies with contracts with the federal government to transport or care for undocumented immigrants to have economic ties with state governments. and local in the region he leads.

Religious organization criticizes proposed

Thus, the law, called SB 1808, penalizes religious organizations such as Catholic Charities for caring for migrant children who arrive in the country unaccompanied by their parents and those who are in a state of vulnerability by denying them state licenses.

The American Coalition of Entrepreneurs for Immigration (ABIC) harshly criticized the governor for enacting this measure, which he had been fighting since it was negotiated in the state legislature.

Mike Fernández, president of MBF Healthcare and co-president of ABIC Action, considered this Friday that the political ambitions of DeSantis, whose name sounds like a possible Republican candidate for the White House, should not “harm innocent immigrant children.”

“This law destroys the life of innocent childrenharms the economy and raises food and gas prices for all Floridians,” Fernandez said in a statement, referring to ABIC’s calculations that this law will cost taxpayers $12,000,000, something he considered a ” waste”.

bitter dispute

This law was a bitter dispute between the governor and the Catholic Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, who denounced that the measure would force the closure of shelters that welcome immigrant minors, including those of Catholic Charities.

also rreceived criticism from a part of the Cuban exile, who reminded the Republican governor that many of them arrived in the country as unaccompanied immigrants in the so-called Pedro Pan operation, through which thousands of Cuban children arrived in the country at the beginning of the 1960s in their flight from the Castro regime.